Sunday 4th May 2025
Acts 9: 1-6 (7-20) or Isaiah 61: 1-3
Psalm 30 (or Psalm 90: 13-17) Easter II 2025.
Revelation 5: 11-14
St. John 21: 1-19
“Blessing and honour and glory and might forever and ever!” Revelation 5: 13b
Remember a time – perhaps as a child; perhaps as an adult – when you got a fit of the giggles with a friend, and you just can’t stop?… One person might recover for a moment, but the second person will set them off into gales of giggles again…
Could there be a worse time for a fit of the giggles than when we are being recorded on live radio?… Some of us have likely heard an audio clip from the archives of the national public broadcaster, from the early 1960’s… Many people at the time were talking about the so-called “space race…” The Soviets were the first to send a man into orbit above the earth… Who would be the first to land on the moon?…
In this conversation on the radio, the subject came up: What if women were to become astronauts?… This struck the co-hosts as hilariously funny; the idea at the time seemed absurd to them!… They both broke down into a fit of the giggles; they couldn’t finish a sentence without laughing so long that tears were streaming down their faces…
The idea of a female astronaut travelling into space seemed absurd at the time… But times change, don’t they?… As of last month, 104 women have completed space flights. They include Roberta Bondar, a Canadian from Sault Ste. Marie, who will be speaking to Anglicans at the diocesan synod next week; and Canadian Julie Payette, who later became a Governor General of Canada…
What might seem to be blindingly ridiculous in one culture or generation can become blindingly obvious in the next… The standards of this world may be foolish from God’s perspective.
St. Paul puts it this way in First Corinthians 1:
For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength (vv. 21-25).
The crucifixion of Jesus Christ can seem like foolishness, to the world… Christians recognize this as God’s great triumph!… There are very many people in the world who deny the possibility of life after death: We proclaim the resurrection….
I am not complaining about people using their minds… In fact, God has given us the gift to be able to reason – to think things through… Christians don’t need to be anti- intellectual. In fact, many of the world’s greatest scientists have been deeply committed Christians. They believe that by exploring science, they are learning more about God, who has made order out of chaos… Using our minds has a place in life. (But we cannot know everything about God by our minds alone…) Christians speak about how God has revealed himself in history – God’s “self-revelation” – supremely, through the person and work of Jesus Christ…
Our minds are a gift, but we are not saved by being clever or smart (nor by being foolish)… We are saved by what Jesus Christ has done, for you and for me, and for all people…
Christians believe there is a natural world we inhabit, which we experience in our bodies. Further, there is a super-natural world, which we can learn about by faith…
Today’s second reading can be perplexing to many modern readers. It is a kind of vision by an early Christian named John. The risen Jesus is described to be like a Lamb. In biblical times, lambs were killed ritually, to be offerings to God… Jesus Christ, in his perfect self-offering, offered himself for the sins of the whole world… As John the Baptist declared, “Here (, Jesus,) is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1: 29)…” So, when we read about a “lamb” in the Bible, that sometimes represents Jesus…
As John later describes the vision he has, in the Book of Revelation, he has a vision of the company of heaven, signing in full-throated praise to God: “Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing (v. 12)…”
Then the entire created order responds in praise: “To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessings and honour and glory and might forever and ever! (v. 13)…”
There are some preachers who seem to have a very good idea about heaven will be like, or who will be included… I believe we need to be much more humble about the mysteries of heaven: For exactly what heaven will be like, we’ll have to wait and see, depending only on the grace of God… I am sure of 3 things about heaven, however: We will meet Jesus, and so many of our loved ones who have gone before us; there will be lots of glorious singing; there will be lots of praise…”
To think about heaven at all is very counter to the spirit of our current age… There are so many around us who believe that the natural world is the end of the story; or if there is a spiritual plane, it is simply a human projection of our best aspirations, not the self- revelation of the living God…
Let’s not get too worked up by people who are dismissive of the assurance of heaven. There is good historical evidence for the person and work of Jesus, as the Church family understands him. What is sometimes veiled in this world later can become clear.
One glorious day, the fullness of Christ’s resurrection will become clear to everyone. St. Paul records it this way in Philippians 2:
Therefore God also highly exalted (Jesus Christ) and gave him the name
that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father (vv. 9-11).
Alleluia! Amen.